‘The comparison is always going to be there:’ Why Cam Jurgens is perfectly suited to follow a legend originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Let’s be honest. He’ll always be The Guy Who Replaced Jason Kelce.
Even if he makes a bunch of Pro Bowls, plays 10 years and turns into one of the NFL’s top centers.
That’s just the reality of following a Hall of Famer.
“It’s going to be tough for him because the comparison is always going to be Kelce,” Landon Dickerson said of Cam Jurgens after practice Monday.
But it’s hard to imagine anybody better wired to be in this position than Jurgens, a down-to-earth 24-year-old farmboy from southeastern Nebraska with his own beef jerky business.
Barring injury, Jurgens will be the Eagles’ first opening-day center other than Kelce since Jamaal Jackson in 2010 and the first Eagle to start any game at center other than Kelce since David Molk in Arizona Week 4 through 7 of the 2014 season, while Kelce was out with a sports hernia.
By the end of his 13-year NFL career, Kelce was a folk hero around here. Only two centers in NFL history have ever made 1st-team all-pro more than Kelce – one played in the 1940s, one in the 1960s – and he joined Chuck Bednarik and Reggie White as only the third six-time all-pro in Eagles history.
It’s accepted as fact that when Kelce is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2029, he’s going in.
It’s hard to imagine a tougher act to follow.
It’s also hard to imagine anybody being more prepared for the challenge than Jurgens.
Kelce gave Jurgens the seal of approval in the 2022 draft after watching his college film, he worked with him his rookie year when Jurgens took most of the 1st-team center reps in training camp after Kelce got his elbow scoped and he played next to him last year, when Jurgens was the Eagles’ starting right guard.
“Cam’s creating his own path right now,” Dickerson said. “Really smart guy, physical guy, strong guy, moves well. He’s handling this transition from going from playing guard and a little bit of center last year to playing center right now. Communication’s been good and you never know what happens when guys get hurt. You’re rotating guys in, we’ve got Mekhi (Becton) coming in and guys stepping in at different tackles, changing up the group.
“And the way he’s been able to handle the communication and if different guys get out there, you never know what’s going to happen. So I think he’s done a tremendous job so far of just clear communication, setting the standard of how things are supposed to be done in the huddle.
“Cam’s in Year Three. He’s an extremely smart dude. He’s played a lot of football.”
It has to help that Kelce isn’t just some mythical figure to Jurgens. He’s a guy who sat next to Jurgens in the locker room for a year and played more than 600 snaps next to him.
There’s no mystery here. Jurgens may be replacing a legend, but he’s also replacing a friend and a teammate. A guy he got dressed next to just about every day in 2023.
But the comparisons will always be there.
“Yeah, he’s going to hear it from you guys all the time,” Dickerson said. “That’s what’s going to happen. No offense, you guys got used to that and that’s going to be your comparison. So he’s handling it extremely well.
“It’s not trying to replace Kelce. Cam’s going to make his own legacy, his own path, his own destiny. He’s going to be Cam Jurgens. His name’s not Jason Kelce. He’s not going to try and be 62. He’s going to do what Cam Jurgens does.”
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